KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – Pro Roy Hawk of Salt Lake City, Utah, caught a five-bass limit weighing 33 pounds Saturday to win the Stren Series Western Division tournament on Clear Lake with a three-day total of 15 bass weighing 73-7. For his victory, Hawk earned $20,000 cash and a fully rigged Ranger boat.
“This is truly amazing,” said Hawk, who won the 2008 Walmart FLW Series National Guard Western Division Lake Mead event. “This lake is just awesome. I feel so blessed to be standing here and fishing FLW tournaments.
“I didn’t get a lot of practice time this week so I went with my gut feeling and it worked out pretty good for me.”
Hawk caught most of his fish this week on a Lucky Craft LP-500. On the final day, his big fish came off a Lucky Craft CBD-20
Hawk opened the tournament in 15th place Thursday with five bass weighing 20-2. He then caught five bass weighing 20-5 Friday to make the crucial top 10 cut in eighth place.
Rounding out the top five pros are Steve Ericksen of San Jose, Calif. (15 bass, 71-1, $8,169); Randy McAbee Jr. of Bakersfield, Calif. (15 bass, 62-4, $6,536); Mathew Saavedra of Redding, Calif. (15 bass, 58-3, $5,719) and Rob Riehl of Tracy, Calif. (15 bass, 57-8, $4,902).
Chad Martin of Plumas Lake, Calif., caught the biggest bass of the tournament in the Pro Division Thursday – a 9-pound, 12-ounce bass – that earned him the day’s big bass award of $333.
Kyle Baker of Lancaster, Calif., won the Co-angler Division and a 198VX Ranger boat and trailer, with a three-day total of 15 bass weighing 50-11.
Baker caught five bass weighing 20-15 Thursday to open the tournament in second place. On Friday he added five more bass weighing 15-11 to make the top 10 cut in second place.
Rounding out the top five co-anglers are Mark White of Tucson, Ariz. (15 bass, 50-2, $3,391); Thomas Wang of Saratoga, Calif. (15 bass, 49-3, $2,543); Jeff Garmeson of Rancho Cordova, Calif. (15 bass, 49-2, $2,120) and Christopher Ricci of Bend, Ore. (15 bass, 49-0, $1,908).
Michael Hong of San Francisco, Calif., caught the biggest bass of the tournament in the Co-angler Division Friday – a 8-pound, 3-ounce bass – that earned him the day’s big bass award of $166.
The next Stren Series Western Division event, hosted by the Town of Payson, will be held April 16-18 on Lake Roosevelt in Payson, Ariz. Boats will launch from Cholla Recreation Site in Roosevelt and the final weigh-in will be held at the Wal-Mart located at 300 N. Beeline Highway in Payson.
After four qualifying events are complete in each Stren Series division – Central, Northern, Southeast, Texas and Western – the top 40 pros and 40 co-anglers based on the points standings from each division will advance to the Stren Series Championship on Pickwick Lake in Florence, Ala., Nov. 5-7 for a shot at $150,000 in the Pro Division and $60,000 in the Co-angler Division. The top 10 pros and 10 co-anglers from each division will also qualify for the 2010 Walmart FLW Tour® and Walmart FLW Series®, bass fishing’s top professional circuits. The highest-finishing pro and co-angler from each division at the Stren Series Championship will also qualify for the 2010 Forrest Wood Cup, where anglers will compete for the $1 million grand prize – the most lucrative award in bass fishing
In Stren Series competition, pros supply the boats, fish from the front deck against other pros and control boat movement. Co-anglers fish from the back deck and compete against other co-anglers. Every angler who receives weight credit in a tournament earns points that determine angler standings. Two hundred points are awarded to the winner, 199 points for second, 198 points for third, and so on. The full field competes on days one, two and three, with the top 10 pros and 10 co-anglers advancing to day four based on their three-day accumulated weight. Winners are determined by the heaviest accumulated weight from all four days.
FLW Outdoors, named after Forrest L. Wood, the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, is the largest fishing tournament organization in the world. FLW Outdoors also is taking fishing mainstream with FLW Fantasy Fishing, offering the largest awards possible in the history of fantasy sports, $10 million in cash and prizes. Sign up for Player’s Advantage for only $10 to get your edge and win.
For more information about FLW Outdoors and its tournaments, visit FLWOutdoors.com or call (270) 252-1000. For more information about FLW Fantasy Fishing and Player’s Advantage, visit FantasyFishing.com.